The history of Commonwealth Engineering spans some 70 years and its story is really a window into Australia's industrial and manufacturing development from the end of the First World War through to the early 1990s.

At its peak the Comeng Holdings empire was the largest manufacturer of railway rolling stock in the Southern Hemisphere, having the largest order book for rolling stock of any firm in the Western world. It continued to grow in size until in December 1982 it was listed at number 48 in the top 150 companies in Australia. It then had almost 7,000 employees.